Are there too many Hunger Games out there?

David Konow, 10th November 2012

No, we’re not saying three Hunger Games books, or four Hunger Games movies, are too much.

Love it or hate it, the whole movie franchise will be wrapped up and done by 2015, but it’s easy to be mistaken in thinking there’s more out there, because a lot of Young Adult novels out there are very similar to the Hunger Games these days.

Frankly, I’d rather have more Hunger Games clones out there than Twilight clones, and it’s interesting that the biggest young adult novels out there in recent history have had somewhat of a fantastical or dystopian bent, from Harry Potter to Twilight to Hunger Games. While Hunger Games is a story that’s been done before, Battle Royale comes to mind, the site io9 also asked the question in a recent story, "Could The Hunger Games get published today?”

Actually, the real question is are there too many Hunger Games style novels out there? As Charlie Jane Anders writes, "The Hunger Games helped to transform the landscape of publishing, convincing a ton of people that young adult novels could be important, serious books." (Harry Potter certainly went a long way towards that as well.)

One literary agent told i09 that book editors are currently "dystopianed-ed out, and dystopian seems to be the kiss of death right now…now that many great (and not so great) dystopian books have been published, they’re not looking for any more." The site also says that publishers currently have "a dystopian hangover…These cycles are routine and not surprising. The same thing happened with paranormal romance, vampires, etc."

When any trend takes off, it’s only natural that everyone wants to make money off it, and end up beating it death in the process. Yet with the upcoming Hunger Games flicks, which will continue to make a ton of dough, it sure won’t stop people from trying to create more dystopian worlds on the page.